February 6, 2010

European companies outraged at S.D.N.Y. apartheid reparations case

Germany's Daimler -- which is also objecting to the South African government's turnabout on the suit -- and Barclays Bank are among those protesting the creative legal theories. Earlier here.

More: Princeton Lyman (Council on Foreign Relations), NYT op-ed. And also on the Alien Tort Statute, here's a YouTube video in which Linda Kelly, director of legal education programs for the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern Law, discusses the center's efforts related to the statute.

January 16, 2010

Around the web, January 16

Employment-law edition:

• Something wicked this way comes - Congress's 2010 employment law agenda [Hyman, Ohio Employer's Law]
• New volume, "Labor Rights in the Era of Globalization" [Workplace Prof]
• Not your father's New Hampshire: new Granite State plant-closing law goes beyond federal requirements [Michael Fox]
• "Top 10 Wage-and-Hour Settlements Tally 44% More in 2009" [ABA Journal on Seyfarth paper]
  
• Smuggling the "workplace bullying" crusade into ... hospital accreditation? [Michael Fox]
• "Caregivers as a Protected Class?" [new paper on "family responsibilities discrimination"; Workplace Prof]
  

December 31, 2009

Interpol privileges and immunities

Orin Kerr doesn't see much basis for the blogospheric fuss; readers contribute (first, second posts). Update: David Kopel finds fears misplaced.

December 30, 2009

Why Does the Administration Refuse to Provide Guidance in Fatah Terror Case?

POLITICO's Josh Gerstein (via Laura Rozen at the same location) alerts us to the fact that U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler has publicly criticized the Obama administration for refusing to take a position in a lawsuit brought against the Palestinian Authority in connection with a terrorist attack in 2000 that claimed the life of a 25-year-old American, Esh Gilmore. Gilmore's family claims the PLO's Tanzim branch was responsible for his death in the shooting outside an Israeli government office in Jerusalem. Judge Kessler called the administration "particularly unhelpful" and the State Department "mealy-mouthed" in refusing to provide official guidance on the foreign policy issues involved.

Kessler was attempting to decide whether the Palestinian Authority should be granted a new trial or forced to pay a default judgment that rendered against it following its decision not to defend itself against the Gilmore lawsuit.

"The Executive Branch of the United States has been particularly unhelpful in resolving this difficult Motion," Kessler wrote. "The Court requested that the State Department file a Statement of Interest in order to understand the international ramifications of any order it might enter, and to be apprised of our Government's position about such ramifications. In this case, as in Knox v. The Palestinian Liberation Organization. ... the State Department declined to do so. Instead it filed the identical mealy-mouthed Notice there as it did in this case. That Notice, for all practical purposes, said nothing and certainly provided no substantive guidance whatsoever to the Court regarding the Government's position or concerns about any impact a decision might have on the delicate situation in the Middle East."

Is the administration prepared to say that the Palestinian Authority, but not other governments, is immune from liability for killing Americans abroad? That's one interpretation of the State Department's warning to Judge Kessler not to adversely affect the PA's finances. Since when do finances have anything to do with tort liability?

November 24, 2009

State of play on Alien Tort litigation

Lee G. Dunst of Gibson Dunn, writing in the New York Law Journal (PDF), reviews recent cases and concludes that the courts are tending to dismiss most actions filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act (also known as the Alien Tort Statute or Alien Tort Act), but plaintiffs are resourceful and the recent Shell settlement may incentivize more filings. "[E]ven when these cases occasionally survive dismissal, they still have not fared too well with juries at the end of the day.... However, success [for defendants] does not always come fast or easy in these cases."

November 23, 2009

Around the web, November 23

• Tide turning against drug-pricing suits? Glaxo SmithKline beats back Kentucky case [Longstreth, AmLaw Daily]
• Court in Australia deems litigation funding pact improper as "unregistered managed investment scheme" [New Lawyer]
• Should docs be careful what they ask for? Michelle Mello of Harvard, a prominent advocate of health courts, hopes they'll significantly expand compensation [Gerencher, MarketWatch]
• Doubts about the latest phthalates scare, and a Daubert angle [Trevor Butterworth, Forbes]
• Claim: pay-to-play isn't such a big problem with public pension plaintiffs after all [Securities Litigation Watch, more]
• Chevron, trial lawyer adversaries locked in lobbying combat over Ecuador suit [Politico via Law & More]

November 20, 2009

Around the web, November 20

• Moving beyond judicial elections? Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform has a new report out (PDF) on the subject of "Best Practices in Judicial Merit Selection" More: Gavel Grab. Earlier: here, here, etc.
• Latest from the Jury Verdict Research people: employers winning less, paying more [Toth, Manpower Blawg]
• Critique of new Cass Sunstein book on constitutional interpretation [Steven Menashi, Policy Review]
• Judge refuses to dismiss medical monitoring claim in West Virginia DuPont Teflon pollution suit [Jackson]
• Alien Tort Statute discussed by Kenneth Anderson at Volokh [first, second, third, fourth posts]
• Liability is said to add $7.96/visit at one D.C. gastroenterologist's office, and one lawyer-blogger thinks patients oughta be grateful to get off so cheap [Day]

November 19, 2009

"Chevron Files Malicious Prosecution Suit Against Plaintiffs Lawyer"

Background: environmental claims arising from Ecuador oil operations that were dismissed by U.S. District Judge William Alsup after he found that three plaintiffs' "case was 'manufactured by plaintiffs' counsel' after two of the claimants admitted never actually contracting the illnesses they were suing Chevron over." [Baxter/American Lawyer]

October 30, 2009

Around the web, October 30

• Salaried retirees got shaft, UAW retirees got comfy bailout in Obama GM/Delphi scheme [NYT] "Government Strongarm Tactics in the Chrysler Bankruptcy" [Coyote]
• Talisman Energy ruling: "2nd Circuit Finds Aid Must Be 'Purposeful' for Alien Tort Statute Liability" [NYLJ] Could put crimp in ATS suits [Anderson, Volokh]
• Make him spend it all: George Soros pledges $50 million donation to combat free-market economic thinking [Future of Capitalism] More: Anderson, Volokh.
• "How Tort Reform Cut Florida Workers' Compensation Costs" [Helvacian/NCPA, Public Nuisance Wire]
• New book: "Punitive Damages: Common Law and Civil Law Perspectives" [TortsProf]
• Massachusetts judge rejects controversial Wal-Mart wage-hour class settlement [American Lawyer and earlier]

October 29, 2009

"Alien Tort Claims Act Cases Keep Coming"

As Russell Jackson notes in the National Law Journal (article in PDF, summary at his blog), Alien Tort plaintiffs have enjoyed enough successes lately, among the numerous setbacks, to encourage the continued bringing to U.S. courts of alleged human rights violations in faraway lands:

It is ironic that -- at a time when a nationwide negligence class action for physical injuries cannot be certified because of the differences in legal standards among the states -- courts have reached out to assert jurisdiction over class actions for claims under the "law of nations" whose elements and subtleties seem far less well-settled than negligence law.